Organised by Regine Ehleiter, project Writing as Artistic Practice (2022-), Research Area 4: "Literary Currencies". Co-initiator and exhibition designer: Anja Lutz (A—Z, Berlin).

This event is part of the exhibition "Mirtha Dermisache: To Be Read" and the third in a collaborative series entitled "Reading Artists’ Books", that was initiated by Regine Ehleiter und Tabea Nixdorff, in memory of the artist, curator and director of the Joan Flasch Artists' Books Collection at SAIC Doro Boehme (1957-2020).

How is asemic – that is illegible – writing to be read, or is this a contradiction in terms? What does it mean to speak of 'reading' marks that do not form letters, words and sentences, or even constitute signs? Does reading require language to occur?

In March 1971, Roland Barthes wrote to Mirtha Dermisache that the 'illegible writing' of which her books and publications consist, 'suggests to its readers, not exactly messages nor the contingent forms of expression, but the idea, the essence of writing. Nothing is more difficult to produce than an essence, i.e., a shape that refers to its own definition.' Similarly, any attempt to 'read' Mirtha Dermisache's 'writing' leads us to also question the act of 'reading' itself and consider its essence.

Dermisache was keen to collaborate with artists and scientists as a means of exploring new ways of approaching her work. In the same year in which she started her epistolary exchange with Barthes, she also engaged in musical experiments with Fernando von Reichenbach and other composers at the Centro Latinoamericano de Altos Estudios Musicales (CLAEM). Von Reichenbach had invented a 'graphic converter' and put it to use, in 1971, to translate Mirtha Dermisache's graphisms, inscribed on a large script roll, into sound. In the program, there will be a reading by New York-based art historian and curator Josefina Barcia on this topic.

The Argentine writer Sergio Chejfec (1956–2022), in his reading of Mirtha Dermisache's Libro n° 8 (1970), produced a legible translation of her work. Entitled El mes de las moscas (2019), his interpretation maintained the original visual layout and the typographical appearance of Mirtha's book and is currently being translated from Spanish into English as The Month of the Flies (2024) (see reading by New York-based poet, translator, and editor Silvina López Medin and the literary scholar Rebekah Smith).

Apart from contributions that focus on Mirtha Dermisache's work, 'Reading Artists' Books: Asemic Writing' will also present readings of publications by other artists, such as Rosaire Appel, Konstantina Benaki, Åke Hodell (a reading by Barbara Bausch), Eva Wipf (a reading by Tabea Nixdorff and Monique Ulrich) and publications from 'The Interspecies Library' (a reading by Oscar Salguero).

Each of the contributions is scheduled to last no longer than 10 minutes and will be recorded. The final reading order (approximately ten readings) will be published online, shortly prior to event. To follow the event online via Webex and receive the event link, please register in advance: asemic@temporal-communities.de